How do I know my transmission torque converter is in good condition?

Link977 · Mar 13, 2007

Hi folks,
since I'm in the GB of Technine chip, and already read few posts.
Toto posted his auto transmission showed this problem after chipped(code 01192, transmission torque converter), as his experience, the transmission torque converter should be in good condition to handle extra torque.
So how do I know my transmission torque converter's condition?Vag-com?
My car is 2000 Jetta TDI auto, shift normally and drives normally, no code showed before about the transmission and the transmission oil had never been changed.
Thank you
Link

OmegaRenegade · Mar 13, 2007

the torque converter should be able to handle the torque, that 01192 code refers to the intermittent lock up fault:
01192 - Torque Converter Lock-Up Clutch
04-10 - Mechanical Malfunction - Intermittent

which i am told is basically when ure car is in 4th gear and doing highway speeds... i seem to remember his problem was due to lack of fluid. I had the same problem but before it went bad it started throwing trouble codes and eventually over time it broke down and i needed a new transmission. Mind you i wasnt chip tuned but from my experience with my tranny folly's i have read that a lot of people have got about 100 000 miles out of their auto tranny without problems and its only after that point where it started to give in.

As with most things proper maintenance will help on it however since the fluid change is not 'needed' it is upon the owner to ask for this service to be performed.

i do believe Chris from technine offers a 30 day money back gaurentee so that if your not satisfied with the program he can restore your car back to stock. Basically if you get this done and u find your torque converter CANT hold the new power, you can get the program removed and drive your car as it was. Once you have the chipped program is when you will know what the final drive is like of your car. If its not currently reading any fault codes you may or may not see them after the ECU remap.

this is the direct quote off their website:

"Every Technine performance software comes with an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee. The 30 day grace period will ensure that your expectations are met. If for any reason you are not satisfied, you may return it to your place of purchase for a full refund."

if that give you anymore confidence in going ahead with this upgrade.

dttech · Mar 14, 2007

I had a Tranny guy tell me that you should change your fluid every 50,000.
Don't let them flush just change the fluid and you will get much longer life out of your tranny.
If they flush your in trouble from stirring stuff up.

Link977 · Mar 14, 2007

dttech said:
I had a Tranny guy tell me that you should change your fluid every 50,000.
Don't let them flush just change the fluid and you will get much longer life out of your tranny.
If they flush your in trouble from stirring stuff up.

There are two ways to change the oil? Flush then change the oil, and just change the oil?
Flash will be easy to blow the auto tran?

dttech · Mar 14, 2007

That was my understanding from him that some places will do a flush or I would assume maybe a back flush but that stirs up the crap so he said change only and probably filter. I have never had to do one but this is from a guy who knows tranny's intimately and I trust him where they are concerned.
I originally asked the question because I had a Dodge van and they were known for tranny trouble but he said new oil every 50 and it will go the life of the vehicle.

Silver02TDI · Mar 14, 2007

This is my layman's knowledge in layman's terms, from when I was researching auto tranny flushes on my old car:

Dealerships tend to "flush". They hook up two hoses to the tranny, one pushes new fluid into the tranny, the other hose is where the old fluid goes out. The pressure tends to stir up all the crap that normally sticks to some magnetic plate inside the tranny. Since new fluid is being pushed in with the old, it also just dilutes the fluid, doesn't completely replace it.

A proper mechanic will completely drain the fluid, remove that magnetic plate and clean off all the crud, put it back in, and then fill in the new fluid. There is also a part of the tranny where fluid tends to remain when you drain it, unless you make the effort to remove it (in effect, causing once again a dilution rather than a complete replacement if you don't drain this part).

So yeah, do my layman's terms make any sense?

This is where the pros can chime in ha ha

Link977 · Mar 14, 2007

Silver02TDI said:
This is my layman's knowledge in layman's terms, from when I was researching auto tranny flushes on my old car:

Dealerships tend to "flush". They hook up two hoses to the tranny, one pushes new fluid into the tranny, the other hose is where the old fluid goes out. The pressure tends to stir up all the crap that normally sticks to some magnetic plate inside the tranny. Since new fluid is being pushed in with the old, it also just dilutes the fluid, doesn't completely replace it.

A proper mechanic will completely drain the fluid, remove that magnetic plate and clean off all the crud, put it back in, and then fill in the new fluid. There is also a part of the tranny where fluid tends to remain when you drain it, unless you make the effort to remove it (in effect, causing once again a dilution rather than a complete replacement if you don't drain this part).

So yeah, do my layman's terms make any sense? This is where the pros can chime in ha ha

Silver02TDI, from what you said, I'm more and more worried to give my car to a 'layman' mechanic for the transmission oil flush. I prefer to let it done with an experience mechanic who did it before.
Any recommendation guyz?
Thank you
Link

toto · Mar 14, 2007

OmegaRenegade said:
the torque converter should be able to handle the torque, that 01192 code refers to the intermittent lock up fault:
01192 - Torque Converter Lock-Up Clutch
04-10 - Mechanical Malfunction - Intermittent

which i am told is basically when ure car is in 4th gear and doing highway speeds... i seem to remember his problem was due to lack of fluid. I had the same problem but before it went bad it started throwing trouble codes and eventually over time it broke down and i needed a new transmission. Mind you i wasnt chip tuned but from my experience with my tranny folly's i have read that a lot of people have got about 100 000 miles out of their auto tranny without problems and its only after that point where it started to give in.

As with most things proper maintenance will help on it however since the fluid change is not 'needed' it is upon the owner to ask for this service to be performed.

i do believe Chris from technine offers a 30 day money back gaurentee so that if your not satisfied with the program he can restore your car back to stock. Basically if you get this done and u find your torque converter CANT hold the new power, you can get the program removed and drive your car as it was. Once you have the chipped program is when you will know what the final drive is like of your car. If its not currently reading any fault codes you may or may not see them after the ECU remap.

this is the direct quote off their website:

"Every Technine performance software comes with an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee. The 30 day grace period will ensure that your expectations are met. If for any reason you are not satisfied, you may return it to your place of purchase for a full refund."

if that give you anymore confidence in going ahead with this upgrade.

Omegarenegade,

You are correct. My tranny oil level was short by around 300cc, which is not by much, but I do believe it was the contributing factor of the slippage. The 01192 code has not been back since the tranny oil was topped up (I'm knocking on wood)

.

I agree with you, the best way is to get it chipped. If the TC slips badly, then you can always go back to stock.

Toto

OmegaRenegade · Mar 14, 2007

The guys at H2Sport can change your tranny oil... they gave me a very good price:

$16.16/Litre of oil- whatever they take out they replace which comes down to how much they can get out of the torque converter Mine was 3 Litres
$30 for the filter
$75/hour for labor and the whole thing was like 0.8hours of work.

best bet if u want to change the oil is to call them and get an appointment made.

compu_85 · Mar 14, 2007

So you know... you can't do a 'flush' with the 4 speed VW auto.. because the cooler is integrated into the transmission. There are no cooler lines you can unhook and connect to a flushing machine.

-Jason

Link977 · Mar 14, 2007

OmegaRenegade said:
The guys at H2Sport can change your tranny oil... they gave me a very good price:

$16.16/Litre of oil- whatever they take out they replace which comes down to how much they can get out of the torque converter Mine was 3 Litres
$30 for the filter
$75/hour for labor and the whole thing was like 0.8hours of work.

best bet if u want to change the oil is to call them and get an appointment made.

OmegaRenegade, are you sure the whole thing will ONLY take 0.8 hours of work? Because I called few dealers, all of them said at least 3 hours job.

Silver02TDI · Mar 14, 2007

I remember paying around $300 for my transmission fluid change... And that was paying $21 per litre for the fluid and a labour rate of $65/hour. It did take them a while to do it. This was not anywhere near the GTA though.

Silver02TDI · Mar 14, 2007

P.S. I was at a shop recently, and someone got their car scanned (he was asking about transmission fluid changes) and I think that same code came up. The mechanic then told the guy that that is a common error for them to get in the winter because of the slip-sliding all over the place, so it does not necessarily mean something is wrong with the tranny. The guy had an Audi though, so don't know if it's the same thing with dubs

OmegaRenegade · Mar 15, 2007

Link977 said:
OmegaRenegade, are you sure the whole thing will ONLY take 0.8 hours of work? Because I called few dealers, all of them said at least 3 hours job.

i shall look at my bill again... gotta dig it up, however i do know that they quoted me 1 hour labor over the phone and it definatley took less then that to do

its not an overly labor intensive job for them to do, most of the time is spent letting the car cool down because they have to check the fluid at a specific temperature.

I dont like using the dealers for anything as their labor costs arent charged by what it actually took their mechanic to fix the car rather looked up in and over inflated book to see what someone else took to do the job. Classic case is changing glow plugs. Their books still say 2 hour job! if u actually do it ureself.. EVEN IF, you hadnt done it before, with the right tool and a little patients it should take no more then 30 mins to do.

anyways, i'll definatley look that up for you in the morning, but give them a call and see what they charge you. The oil price seemed pretty cheap but Dave assured me that this was the VW mineral oil spec needed by our automatics... just a different brand name.

Link977 · Mar 15, 2007

OmegaRenegade said:
i shall look at my bill again... gotta dig it up, however i do know that they quoted me 1 hour labor over the phone and it definatley took less then that to do.

Let me know OmegaRenegade.
If the peice as what you told, I'll go to H2Sport right now.

Silver02TDI · Mar 15, 2007

Did the hour labour include removing that thing with the magnetic strip that the little broken bits stick to and cleaning that off?

OmegaRenegade · Mar 15, 2007

This is what my Invoice sez:
Comp: Remove trans oil pan. Replace oil and filter as per drain/fill 0.8Hrs labor Customer notified that torque converter will still remain partially full.. Remove and clean valve block.
Cause: Silver/grey paste found in pand magnet. This is normal however quantities found were higher than is normally acceptable Brass/bronze particles also found in bottom of oil pan. Valve block can not be disassembled.
Corr: Clean pan and magnet. Replace filter and oil
Oil level correct for 40*C ATF temperature

#ACG 05216A2 Synthetic AFT, 1L - 16.16 x3 - $48.48
#AC01M398425 Automatic Transmission Filter, $27.20
#90414201 Screw, $ 1.57
#ACN 9033004 Clamping Washer (pizza type), $ 1.20

Parts Total - 78.45
Labor Total - 60.00
Taxes - 19.38
Total - $ 157.83

So yes that also included cleaning out the junk at the bottem.

Link977 · Mar 15, 2007

OmegaRenegade said:
#ACG 05216A2 Synthetic AFT, 1L - 16.16 x3 - $48.48
#AC01M398425 Automatic Transmission Filter, $27.20
#90414201 Screw, $ 1.57
#ACN 9033004 Clamping Washer (pizza type), $ 1.20

All the parts are OEM?

OmegaRenegade · Mar 15, 2007

the filter is OEM but the fluid i think is aftermarket... the screw and clamping washer where just external things that either broke off cause they where rusted or were missing and have nothing to do with the actual fluid change.

OEM fluid they will put in at ure request however your looking at somewhere close to $30/L which is pretty damned expensive. If you have doubt about it maybe someone can chime in on what grade of oil to look out for and the guys at H2Sport will most likley be happy to confirm that it is of that grade or change it so that it meets that spec.

For me my fluid change was kinda in vein cause my transmission was pretty much pooched so their work was all for not. I ended up changing all the internal parts to new including the fluid and filter.

Link977 · Mar 15, 2007

OmegaRenegade said:
the filter is OEM but the fluid i think is aftermarket... the screw and clamping washer where just external things that either broke off cause they where rusted or were missing and have nothing to do with the actual fluid change.

OEM fluid they will put in at ure request however your looking at somewhere close to $30/L which is pretty damned expensive. If you have doubt about it maybe someone can chime in on what grade of oil to look out for and the guys at H2Sport will most likley be happy to confirm that it is of that grade or change it so that it meets that spec.

For me my fluid change was kinda in vein cause my transmission was pretty much pooched so their work was all for not. I ended up changing all the internal parts to new including the fluid and filter.

Thanks a lot.
Emailed H2sport and waiting for reply.

How do I know my transmission torque converter is in good condition?

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